A Dragon's Journey
by Zidiane
Summary: Who is the man behind the shoryuken? We all know the basic answer to that question, but who was the boy before the shoryuken? Follow me as we see the legendary origin's to the legendary man known as Ryu.


Yeah! My street fighter fic is coming alive! It's a little less action orientated than I originally thought, but that doesn't matter! Damn, it feels good to put out another story!

Unrelated note: to all of my normal fans, i'll be able to continue Team Naruto shortly! I'm able to get all of the information from the hard drive of my laptop, and now all I need is another computer to put it on. Team Naruto... or maybe something else, should be up shortly!

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A child. That's all he was, but here he was, on his own, surviving at the age of 6. The crowded market street served well in the camouflage it provided the small, brown-haired boy. His hungry eyes darted from stand to stand, person to person, searching for any exploitable weaknesses. He found one.

An elderly man who was bald on top of his head, but had long white hair reaching down to the middle of his back; the hair was held near the bottom by a giant bead. He also and a full white beard. He looked well built for an old man, the child noticed, with broad shoulders and solid looking muscles. The child had no issue with this; he knew this would be an easy grab. The old man moved slowly and had scars all over his body; those two things told him that he could easily outrun the probably weak old man. With that many scars, he had to have been hurt badly somewhere, and so he probably had messed up bones.

Now that the target was found, specifically the money pouch tied around the man's belt, he had to watch his surroundings. He looked around, observing all of the bystanders. There were a few that were looking in his general direction and might see him if he went for it, so he had to wait. While he waited for them to look somewhere else, or for them to be passed in the crowd, he slowly approached the old man.

He picked up his pace slightly, just barely faster than that of the old man's, until he was within arm's reach of the money pouch. When he reached that point, he looked around again. Two of the people who were looking this way had either left or been distracted, and no new faces appeared to be looking towards him.

His small fingers moved to the pouch, quickly and steadily, but halted before they could reach the purse. "HEY! Old man!" the boy heard someone shout, and he faded back into the crowed.

"Yes?" the old man asked in a deep voice, turning to face the younger man approaching at an angry pace. The younger man had 5 people walking behind him, 4 of them were men and the other one was a woman.

"This the guy, Renji?" the presumed leader of the group asked, turning back to look at a slightly smaller man.

"Yeah, that's him! He was spouting some crap about us!" the second man shouted, stepping towards the old man with a pipe in his hand.

"So what do ya got ta say for yourself, huh?" the leader asked, turning to the old man and cracking his knuckles.

The old man faced the young group of thugs with apparently no fear. "I merely explained to your friend that if he stayed on his current violent and empty path, he would be lost to the darkness. I can see it in his soul, he still has a chance for redemption."

"Who the fuck are you, his father?" the woman in the group hollered angrily.

Another member of the group stepped forward. "What the hell gives you the right to judge people like that, huh? You old bastard!"

The old man sighed and shook his head. "My heart weeps for the lost children of this world."

The leader laughed, licking his lips as he looked back to his small gang. The crowd of people that had gathered around the old man and the gang started murmuring, shuffling away while still keeping the human ring around the now imminent street fight.

"That old man's history!" one voice called from the crowd.

"Oh man, someone should help him out..." another voice popped up from the boy's right. "Someone besides us, I mean..." the same voice called out a moment later.

The leader of the thugs motioned to the one named Renji. He stepped forward and chuckled, brandishing the pipe cockily as he continued towards the old man. "You ready for this old man?"

The old man stroked his beard thoughtfully for a moment, then concentrated on his challenger. "Hopefully this battle will open your eyes to see the dead-end road you now walk."

The man snorted, then cocked his pipe back and struck at the old man. One second, the child could see the pipe closing in on the old man, and the next, the old man had his fist pointed upwards in front of him and the pipe was nowhere to be found. Renji stumbled back, a look of shock and disbelief on his face.

"Oi! Renji!" the leader called, a frown on his face, "You need some help?" With that, he gestured to the rest of the gang. They all stepped forward, stalking towards the old man.

A few of them had weapons, a baseball bat, a chain, a knife, but the old man didn't look worried at all. "Hmm. Maybe I will be able to show you children the error in your life choices today. Yours is a path no one wants to walk."

After the old man's words, the man with the baseball bat charged. He was followed by another member who had the chain. As they approached, the old man got into a martial arts looking stance. He pulled his left hand in tightly towards his stomach while putting his right hand firmly outwards, his palm pointing towards his incoming enemies.

The thug with the chain attacked first. He whipped the chain at the old man with what looked like all the strength he could muster. The old man simply snatched the chain out of the air with his outstretched palm, and flicked it upwards. With the short motion, the thug flew up into the air a good ten feet, crashing into the ground behind the old man.

The young boy's eyes widened as he watched the fight, amazed at everything he saw, adrenalin pumping fiercely through his small body.

The next person to step forward was the man with the bat, followed closely by the woman with the knife. The delinquent with the bat charged with the bat, swinging with intent to take the old man's head off. Rising his foot with insane speed, he shattered the bat before it hit his head; a light punch to the man's gut ensured he would be unconscious through the better half of the next hour.

The woman with the knife was right behind her now unconscious comrade. "You old son of a bitch!" she screamed as she stabbed the knife towards his stomach. Quick movements that no one in the crowd could see had the knife in the old man's left hand, and the girl with her arms held behind her back by the old man's right hand. A quick flick of the wrist embedded the knife into the dirt road behind him, and a quick blow to the back of the girls head knocked her out as well.

"What's with that old bastard!" the leader of the now mostly unconscious gang seethed. He gestured to his last two members, Renji and the other one. The other one nodded and stepped forward, but Renji seemed to be in a state of shock and didn't move. "Damn it, Renji!" he shouted as he put on brass knuckles and approached the old man, his last functioning minion in tow.

"Hmm... this one appears to have some skill," the old man mused aloud as he stroked his beard.

"I'll show you skill you fucker," he spat with a smile, and his last thug charged the old man with his bare hands. The crowd heard his battle cry, then a crack, then the thud of the thug hitting the ground.

The young boy could barely contain his excitement as he watched the old man defeat the gang single handedly, but his breath caught as he saw what the leader was smirking at. One of the thugs, the one who fought with the chain, had gotten up and took the woman's knife out of the ground. It was pointing towards the old man as he stalked towards his target.

"No!" the young boy whispered, and found himself dashing towards the knife wielding thug.

The old man's eyes widened as he sensed a ki he had not felt since his brother had learned that murderous technique from their master.

"Fucking kid!" the thug yelled as he thrust the knife towards the kids chest.

At that moment, a shout of **"Senkugoshoha" **echoed through the clearing as the old man dashed toward the thug. The old man struck him in the gut with his left hand, causing him to double over slightly, then landed his right palm fiercely against his chin, shooting up into the air once more. He crashed into several people who were in the crowd, but none could gather the courage to say a word against the old man.

The young boy sat on the ground with a look of amazement on his face. Never had he seen anyone move that fast, or hit that hard. Never had he seen a single man take down 6 people. Well, he never actually fought the leader, but seeing as how he was running away now, it was safe to assume he would have won.

"Are you alright, little one?" the old man asked as he offered a hand to the young boy, who readily took it. A nervous nod was his reply. "That was very dangerous... I'm sorry, I don't know your name." The boy didn't respond. "Do you have a name?" The boy shook his head sadly. "No? Do you have no family? Hmm... Well my name is Gouken. Do you have a place to live?" Another sad head shake. "Would you like to stay at my dojo? I saw you in the crowd, you seemed to really enjoy the art I used. I could teach it to you." The boy's eyes lit up slightly, and he gave a nod that showed none of his true excitement. "Well then, little dragon, we'll have to first think of a name for you, won't we?"

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Author's Box

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I've always been fascinated by Ryu. And I've always wondered where he came from. Hence was born this fic! But, yeah, reviews and the like would be more delicious than learning to Shoryuken for the first time! 


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